Evo says stupid things every day, but the local media here (which is under
his thumb) protects him in their ‘lack of reporting’ or twisting it for
disinformation purposes. Unfortunately for him, he was addressing an
international audience so he could not be protected by his lackey media
drones from the international press. For the first time, the world got to
see firsthand what a buffoon this 4th grade educated, narco-trafficking,
murderous thug is. He is NOT the messiah and genius that everyone touts
him to be. His rhetoric is anti-US and anti-Capitalism, so he is the
darling to the ultra-left and self-hating US citizens (Danny Glover, Sean
Penn, Oliver Stone, etc.) He is destroying Bolivia like Chavez is
destroying Venezuela. However, there are now chinks in his armor. His
recent hypocrisy was to dispatch his Minister of Finance last week to the
US to engage those ‘evil capitalists’ there to invest in Bolivia. And,
this was only a few days after he lashed out (ala MO of Fidel Castro) on
the evils of capitalism and how the US was responsible for everything bad
in the world. Over the weekend, Evo announced his government is engaging
Vietnam and North Korea to establish formal diplomatic relations with
them, open embassies and exchange ambassadors in an attempt to strengthen
socialist governments to destroy the US and capitalism. He speaks of
Robert Mugabe as a ‘dear freedom fighter’ who is doing great things for
Zimbabwe. If George W. Bush made a stupid statement like his
genetically modified chicken (and drinking Coca Cola, consuming Alka
Shelzer, both were made in his diatribes but omitted by the media), the
MSM (CNN, MSBNC, et all) would beat this Bush statement to death. You
hear nothing from them when idiots like Chavez and Evo speak. This media
bias is the double standard the left-leaning MSM media is guilty of. If
they were doing their job, instead of being coconspirators in their
liberal politics, FoxNews would not be needed to balance out objectivity.
Finally, the nomination of Evo for the Nobel Peace Prize was just formally
accepted yesterday as a result for his “Mother Earth” Summit [aka,
vehement anti-US, anti-Capitalism (specifically targeting Coca Cola),
anti-UN, pro-coca (sic cocaine) and narco-trafficking platform that was
embraced by 22,000 anti-US, left-wing anarchists in attendance] as a
result of the recent Climate Change Summit in Cochabamba.

This has to do with the fact that Coca Cola raised 12% the price of their
products on Friday. Today they will audit their finances in case they find
problems with it, the government may fine the company or even suspend
their commercial license.

Authority Control and Social Control of Business warned yesterday to fine
or suspend the operations of the local bottler of Coca-Cola, the Chilean
capital in Bolivia if it finds irregularities in its finances that will
audit today after the company raised its Friday up to 12 percent the cost
of their products.

The executive director of the Drug Control Authority and Social Control of
Business, Oscar House, state media said yesterday that today will enter
the United Bolivian Bottling Company SA (embolus) that produces the Coca
Cola, to audit “rigorous, with magnifying glass “of its finances.

Chamber informed the state television BTV, the decision after doing a
plunger.

“And if appropriate we will impose a financial penalty, if any
administrative sanction by the cancellation of the commercial
registration, we will do. We are not going to shake his hand,” said the
regulatory authority of the national business sector.

“I know I’m going to have problems with a plunger because I’m not talking
about a company in the corner, but a transnational corporation,” added the
official.

The official, shortly after, told reporters that the company’s piston has
received one million quintals of sugar subsidized by the state and should
not be raising the price of Coca-Cola.

“After piston had acquired 1,037,400 quintals of sugar from UNAGRO, 50
percent of their harvest in 2010, and knowing that it was sold at a
special price subsidized between 150 and 198 Bolivians and therefore can
not raise their prices, has taken the decision to begin an audit Pitcher
SA, its financial statements, investments, and memories, “said in the
interview.

The company’s technicians have 40 days to demonstrate “the reasons the
reasons to raise the price because that is playing with the country’s
economy. They have to demonstrate technically the rise of its product. The
Coca-Cola Embonor SA of Chile in 1995 bought the franchises and assets of
the piston operation.

Piston
According to AP news agency, yesterday attempts to contact a company
representative for comment on the Government’s announcement were
unsuccessful.

No one answered at the numbers listed in the directory.

According to local media, the bottler raised prices by increasing the
price of sugar on the market.

The State Company for the Support of Food Production (EMAP) on Friday
increased by 23 percent the price of sugar. The government imports sugar
from Brazil and other countries to meet demand.

“The raw material for the manufacture of Coca Cola is water, electricity
and sugar, which have not increased their prices, so we concluded to ask
what is the element that has caused this speculation,” said Chamber .

The government of President Evo Morales accuses Coca Cola to take
advantage of the sugar shortage to justify the increase, despite
accumulating a million pounds of this product at a subsidized cost.

House has fined dozens of companies for different reasons and in recent
days also imposed that the major milk producing Bolivia, Peru participated
by capital, to desist from increasing the cost of their products as
intended.

UNAGRO wait until April

La Paz | Anf

The manager of International Relations of the EU sugar mill CaA+-eros
Agroindustrial SA (UNAGRO) Miguel Montero, said yesterday that the country
but there is no shortage of product shortages, which gives the smuggling
activity.

“In the next harvest UNAGRO undertakes to produce twice as much sugar as
last year, our supply will be geared to meet domestic demand,” said
Montero. The sugarcane explained that this was the only year in which
sugar was missing the last 20 years, so that the commitment was reiterated
to meet demand this entire 2011.

UNAGRO manager explained that the 2010 harvest was closed in September,
three months ahead of schedule, taking into account that 2009 was closed
in December and that following a decrease in cane production.

Montero said that 2010 was 35 per cent less cane which generated a lower
production at 12 million bushels produced in a normal season, taking into
account climatic factors with heavy rains producing only 8.5 million
bushels with an approximate consumption 7.5 million quintals.

BARCODE

The Authority Executive Director Control and Social Control of Business
(AMEP), Oscar House, announced yesterday that as a smuggling bags of sugar
early will macadas with a bar code corresponding to track and prevent the
article leave the country.

“This year we will implement in the first quintals a control bar with
which we make up, if we know that any sugar mill that has come with that
control and are at the border or in another country, we know from where it
came from and who has bought “House said.

By Li Jiabao (China Daily)
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1
Central American diplomat courts investors with country’s many FTAs
XIAMEN, Fujian – Chinese investors seeking a platform to enter the markets
of the Americas should consider Costa Rica, given its numerous trade
advantages and economic diversity, the country’s ambassador to China said
on Sept 9.
“The key word of Costa Rica’s economy development is diversification. We
will shift our efforts from the electronics industry to the high-tech,
renewable- and clean-energy industries,” Marco Ruiz, the Costa Rican
ambassador to China, said during the 15th China International Fair for
Investment and Trade in Xiamen, Fujian province, from Sept 7 to 11.
Pilar Madrigal, director of International Affairs at the Costa Rican
Investment Promotion Agency, emphasized the importance of Chinese
investment.
“Chinese companies can use Costa Rica as a trade platform and an
investment hub to the Western Hemisphere as Minister of Commerce Chen
Deming is encouraging more companies to invest abroad.
“Chinese companies can assemble goods in Costa Rica to increase their
value and export to other countries through Costa Rica’s FTA (free-trade
agreement) with Central America and other countries,” she said.
Costa Rica is the only Central American country to have an FTA with China.
Costa Rica’s eight FTAs regulate trade with 13 partners and cover 64.1
percent of the country’s exports and 64.1 percent of its total imports.
Statistics from the General Administration of Customs of China show that
trade volume between China and Costa Rica reached $3.8 billion in 2010, up
19.2 percent year-on-year. China’s exports to Costa Rica reached $690
million last year while imports totaled $3.11 billion.
The electronics industry has been the leading sector in Costa Rica in the
past decades and the country is a major supplier of electronics.
Since 2000, Costa Rican exports to China, which include computer
components and accessories, electrical plugs and agricultural products,
increased approximately 70 percent annually.
The FTA between Costa Rica and China came into effect on Aug 1. More than
90 percent of bilateral trade goods will eventually be tariff-free.
“China-Costa Rica trade is expected to increase more than 5 percent each
year despite a global reduction in trade, especially in the United States
and European Union. But in Asia, specifically China, trade is growing very
fast,” Ruiz said.
So far, Costa Rica has established FTAs with Singapore and China and is
evaluating the possibility of an FTA with South Korea.
Pilar said that the FTA with China “has built a highway through the ocean,
allowing Chinese companies, investors, tourists to go with confidence”.
However, challenges in areas including mutual understanding and
cooperation may effect China’s investment in Costa Rica.
“My suggestion for Chinese investors is that it is difficult to go abroad
alone. It is much better to find partners in Costa Rica because they
understand the language, customs and traditions. It’s the same for Costa
Rican companies investing in China,” Ruiz said.
—

Eszter – they broke up after all. Arias announced, the Taiwanese FM
offered to resign.

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica – President Oscar Arias announced Wednesday that
Costa Rica has broken diplomatic ties with Taiwan and established
relations with China, delivering a blow to the Asian island’s fragile
international standing.

Taiwanese Foreign Minister James Huang quickly offered to resign to take
responsibility for Costa Rica’s switch, which left the Taiwan with
relations with just two dozen nations.

Since splitting amid civil war in 1949, Taiwan and China have fought to
win the diplomatic allegiance of countries around the world. China refuses
to have diplomatic ties with nations that recognize Taiwan, which Beijing
regards as a renegade province it plans to eventually unify with the
mainland.

Central America in particular has been a bulwark of support for Taiwan,
and Taiwan had expressed fears that if Costa Rica were to shift its
recognition to Beijing, other nations such as Nicaragua and Panama could
soon follow suit.

“We are looking to strengthen the commercial ties and attract investment,”
Arias said. “China is the most successful emerging economy in the world
and soon it will be the second strongest economy in the world after the
United States.”

Arias said China is the Central American nation’s No. 1 trading partner,
buying more than $1 billion worth of Costa Rican exports last year.

“Taiwan has been very generous and I thank it for the solidarity and
co-operation it has shown for nearly 60 years, but I have taken this
decision thinking of all the Costa Ricans,” Arias said.

The change is just one more strike against Taiwan in its campaign for
international legitimacy. During the late 1960s, it had full relations
with 67 countries, including the United States. But the U.S. pulled it
embassy out of the Taiwanese capital a decade later and today just 24
states recognize Taiwan.

The United States, Japan, Great Britain and dozens of others maintain
quasi-official ties * part of a diplomatic sleight of hand to honor
Beijing’s condition that full diplomatic recognition be accorded to only
one of the rivals.

However, Beijing resents even those connections. Its main concern is the
United States, which remains Taiwan’s most important foreign link,
providing it weapons for its defense against a possible Chinese attack.

Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian has said that Taiwan could enjoy formal
independence in his lifetime. This angered China, which has threatened to
attack the island if it formalizes its de facto independence.

“I went to President Chen (Shui-bian) … and asked to resign to take
political responsibility,” Huang told reporters. He did not say if his
offer was accepted.

Huang said that he believed Costa Rica was an isolated case. But he
acknowledged he had ordered Taiwanese embassies in Latin America to guard
against possible Chinese inroads.

“I’ve asked our embassies to take extreme precautions against any further
pressure by the Chinese communists,” he said.

Taiwan has been concerned about a deterioration of its relations with
Costa Rica since May 14, when the Latin American country voted at an
international health conference against holding a discussion on proposed
Taiwanese membership in the World Health Organization.

On May 25, Huang met with officials from Costa Rica and four other Latin
American countries in Belize City in an effort to shore up Taiwan’s
diplomatic standing in the region.

Arias declined to comment on whether his decision could encourage other
Central American nations to transfer their allegiance from Taipei to
Beijing.

Analyst Andrew Yang of the Taipei-based Chinese Council of Advanced Policy
Studies said the Costa Rican action would probably create a chain reaction
among at least a number of Taiwan’s remaining seven Latin American allies.

“This will have a significant impact on other countries, a kind of domino
effect” he said. “Probably Nicaragua and Panama are next and then maybe
Paraguay.”

Salvadoran President Tony Saca said Wednesday that his nation was
interested in establishing relations with China but did not want to sever
ties with Taiwan.

“Taiwan is an independent country that has won its space and we will going
maintaining relations with Taiwan. If China accepts this we will open
relations with pleasure,” Saca said.

As Mexicoa**s drug wars spread south beyond Guatemala and Honduras,
normally peaceful countries have fallen under the crossfire, Samuel Logan
and John P Sullivan write for ISN Security Watch.

By Samuel Logan and John P Sullivan for ISN Security Watch

———————————————————————-

Colombia and Costa Rica reaffirmed counternarcotics cooperation on 16
September, underscoring the reality of a new threat to security facing
Costa Rica, a country known as the Switzerland of Central America.

While most analysts consider Central Americaa**s northern triangle
countries – Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras – to be the most affected
by the regional drug trade, Costa Rica and Panama have in 2009 become de
facto passageways, warehouses and money laundering fronts for both Mexican
and Colombian organized crime.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reports that seizures
of cocaine have increased dramatically in Panama and Costa Rica over the
last few years.

In 2000, seizures of cocaine in Panama and Costa Rica amounted to 7,400
and 5,871 kilograms, respectively. By 2007, this quantity had risen to
60,000 and 32,435 kilos for both states, respectively.

This surge dramatically underscores the growing importance of these
nations in the cross-Hemisphere drug trade. They have been caught in the
crossfire of Mexicoa**s drug wars.

Panama a**reda**

Many analysts observe that Panama could be an emerging narco-battleground.
In addition to a suspected 2,000 coastal hideouts for maritime
traffickers, there is an emphasis on overland drug routes.

a**Around 65 percent of the drug smuggling traffic through Costa Rica and
Panama is maritime, and most of the rest is over land,a** Paul Knierim, an
Agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) with experience in
Central America and currently working as the staff coordinator in
congressional and public affairs, told ISN Security Watch.

Extreme violence is also on the upswing. In April, alleged members of
Mexicoa**s Sinaloa Cartel abducted two suspected Envigado Cartel members
outside Panama Citya**s Metro Plaza mall, just one sign of the countrya**s
burgeoning drug trade. It is fueling a new generation of gangs (108 gangs
at current count), paid a**in-kinda** with drugs by the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and other traffickers.

Costa Rica: Encroaching on paradise

On 30 September, it was announced that Costa Rica would receive an
additional $1 million in Merida funds to combat drug trafficking (this is
on top of an initial $4.3 million allocated earlier this year). The funds
are targeted to bolster the police and enhance efforts to counter money
laundering.

a**Contrary to the Mexico portion of the Merida Initiative, the Central
American portion [also] includes a significant amount of funds for
violence prevention. We were pleased to see that almost a third of the
funding for the first year was earmarked for prevention and community
policing efforts,a** Adriana Beltran, senior associate for citizen
security for the Washington Office on Latin America, told ISN Security
Watch.

But Bruce Bagley, chair of the Department of International Studies with
the University of Miami, remains cautious. a**Costa Rica is a target of
opportunity and must be aware of and alert to its institutional
vulnerability,a** he told ISN Security Watch.

Costa Rican police assigned to counterdrug duties had amounted to 183
officials assigned to the Policia de Control de Drogas (PCD). These
officers are charged with combating a half-billion dollar drug trade that
moves at least 1,000 tons of cocaine annually.

Since the second year of President Oscar Ariasa** administration, when law
enforcement registered a 400 percent increase in the amount of larger
shipments – 500 to 1,000 kilos – moving through Costa Rica, the country
has begun to organize a cohesive strategy to fight back, but observers are
still concerned about whata**s on the horizon.

Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua are not only shifting from transit to
processing territories, they are becoming drug-consuming nations as well.
The increased presence of drugs and drug gangs is stimulating a rise in
crime and violence. Central Americaa**s most peaceful countries may find a
serious security challenge ahead.

“We haven’t yet seen an escalation of violence, but there is concern, so
we’re focused on preventative maintenance and going after the kingpins,”
Knierim said.

Earlier this year, in March, gunmen stole some 320 kilos of confiscated
cocaine from a guarded storage unit in Golfito, a commercial center near
the border with Panama. Security measures failed again, in May, when a
helicopter carrying an estimated 347 kilograms of cocaine crashed on Costa
Ricaa**s notorious Cerro de la Muerte, allegedly en route to a warehouse
located near Turrialba, a small town just east of the capital, San Jose.

At the time, Public Security Minister Janina del Vecchio stated that
a**the presence of Mexican cartels in Costa Rica is worrisome,a** adding
that the helicopter crash supported her analysis that Costa Rica is used
for cocaine warehousing as much as it has been used for transshipment.
Del Vecchio also recently told the Tico Times, that a**[preventing drug
trafficking] isna**t just a fight on the seas, ita**s also a fight in the
streets [a*|].a**

Despite concerns of corruption, Knierim remains very supportive of Costa
Ricaa**s security forces. “In my time in Costa Rica, I’ve had the pleasure
of working very closely with their drug police and judicial police, and
they are some of the most professional, hard working cops in Central
America,” he said.

By land or sea

Drug traffickers have begun to use littoral routes on the Pacific side, as
close as five to 10 miles off shore. At any sign of trouble, a number of
estuaries and rivers provide cover. Some dona**t manage to hide.

On 7 September, officers with Costa Ricaa**s Drug Control Police (PCD)
stopped two fishermen steaming north about seven miles off shore and
interdicted 1,095 kilos of cocaine. Just two weeks prior, officers seized
382 kilos of cocaine out of a boat parked on Garabito beach, near Jaco, a
world renowned surf destination.

On land, the best route north into Nicaragua and beyond is through PeA+-as
Blancas, the border crossing in Costa Ricaa**s northwestern corner. Both
countries have placed a high priority on guarding this passage as it is
considered a bottleneck for illicit shipments moving north over land.

One unintended consequence, however, is that more weight will pass through
Costa Ricaa**s disreputable Limon port on the Caribbean coast, where
officers seized 110 kilos of cocaine from four dock workers who were
offloading a container that had arrived from the Colombian port town of
Turbo, on the Uraba Bay, a long known drugs export zone.

Drug trafficking and the endemic criminal violence it breeds are a threat
to the entire Western Hemisphere. The southern states of Central America
are just encountering the risk involved.

At least two Mexican cartels, the rival Sinaloa and Gulf Cartels are
active throughout Central America. It is near certain that the Zetas and
others are active as well. Add to this the traditional Colombian cartels
and transnational, third-generation gangs such as the Mara Salvatrucha,
and the potential for cross-border drug wars and criminal insurgencies
rises.